More severe and frequent fires in the Alaskan boreal forest are releasing vast stores of carbon and nitrogen from burned trees and soil into the atmosphere, a trend that could accelerate climate warming. But new research published this week in the journal Science shows that the deciduous trees replacing burned Read more…
Earth’s ability to absorb nearly a third of human-caused carbon emissions through plants could be halved within the next two decades at the current rate of warming, according to a new study in Science Advances by researchers at Northern Arizona University (NAU) and the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Using Read more…
Many Ecoss researchers are presenting at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union taking place online Dec 1-17. Everyone who is registered for the meeting can join live online Q&As or view sessions and posters at anytime. Check out this guide to learn more about Ecoss presenters and sessions. Historically, the Read more…
In a year in which global temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide records were broken, experts from 20 colleges and universities will gather virtually November 17-19, 2020 at Northern Arizona University to discuss why carbon reduction is critical to their institutions’ futures, and how each is forging a path to zero Read more…
Many Ecoss students, staff and faculty are presenting at this year’s virtual Ecological Society of America meeting, held Aug. 3 – 6, 2020. Learn where to view their presentations and how to participate virtually from the downloadable Ecoss @ ESA guide below. You can get information about registration here.
Warming global temperatures are changing life on every continent on Earth, including Antarctica, where more microbes are moving in to territory previously covered by ice. How these microbes respond to warming offers us clues about what future Antarctica will look like and who will thrive there. Microbial ecologist and PhD Read more…
New research from Northern Arizona University researchers challenges long-held assumptions that phosphorus limits aboveground plant growth mainly in tropical regions but not others. The paper, published this week in Nature Communications, suggests that this important nutrient actually helps govern plant production in temperate regions, too, and on every continent except Read more…
Stephen Porder from Brown University will talk about how to move universities off of fossil fuels.
The abrupt thawing of permafrost may affect up to half of all carbon stored in the layer of frozen Arctic soil, according to a new study in Nature Geoscience, and could double permafrost’s contributions to global climate warming compared to some previous model estimates that focused on gradual thaw alone. Read more…
If the fate of carbon is a test that planet Earth is taking right now, one of the answer keys is likely to be found in soil, where microorganisms—which account for nearly 15 percent of global biomass, by some estimates—eat, store and respire carbon and other nutrients. As Earth warms, Read more…